Mrs. Edwards Gets "Lit" as the kids would say

Hello my dear Unies!  Welcome to our Growing In Unity blog hop.  You get to start here with me today, and I am more than excited about that.  Below you will see the blog hop order and you will have the chance to click on other spectacular blogs and comment to win a fabulous prize pack from Unity Stamp Company.  

I have two little projects for you today. For me as a teacher, summer break is coming in 4 DAYS! I can barely believe it.  But with the end of the school year comes the need for graduation cards.  I think light bulbs are a perfect alternative  to owls or cap and gowns for a graduation.

To achieve this effect I stamped with Versafine Onyx black on kraft cardstock.  I used Gina Marie Wonky stitched rectangles for the base.  I stamped the image from the kit See the Light and sentiment. Then I used Prismacolor pencils to give a faint glow.  I used three colors, white, cream, and a goldenrod color. to diffuse the light.  To make it pop a little more, I used a brown ink called Desert Sand to distress the edges. I was struggling with the sequins, so I grabbed a small handful of the colors I wanted, I dropped them, and then picked a couple off and tweaked them to make sure they didn't cover anything important.  It gave me the randomness my eye wanted. I think this card could be a great gender neutral gift for any graduate.

The next mini project is an ATC.  I've been OBSESSED with Artist Trading Cards since my good friend Annie Sterner introduced me to them.  I've been sharing my pieces on the Show and Tell, which you should join if you haven't already.  The ATC I made could be put inside the above card with an encouraging note on the back that a graduate could stick in one of the 300 dollar textbooks they will probably never read.  I say this from experience.  

I didn't want to make all the bulbs from the kit Glowing and Beautiful a traditional yellow or white.  I thought some colorful lights would make the card pop a bit more.  I'll share a tip for how I colored my lights. Caution: I'm not an expert at coloring; I just experiment and do what looks best to me.  I used four shades of the same hue for each light, and started with the darkest color on the outside. I then overlapped lighter colors toward the inside, using white to give the inside of the bulb a glow. After I blended using a colorless blending pencil, I added a couple white glares in the corners of the bulbs and did not blend those. 

As I said before, these projects are just the beginning of the beauty to come.  Please click on all the links below to visit more amazing craft pages and leave them some love.  If you do, you will be in the running to win a crafty prize from Unity Stamp Company, and you know they never skimp on the prizes.

1. Shannon Pavlovic Edwards- You are Here
2. Sandra van Blaricum
3. Amanda Garrett 
4. Tricia Veinot Moore
5. Chris Dayton 
6. Avra Williams